Many telecommunications carriers, such as AT&T, offer conference call service whereby three or more callers may participate in the same call. To establish a conference call, a host typically arranges with a telecommunications carrier to reserve a number of connections (i.e., ports) on a telecommunications bridge, which is a device within the carrier's network that combines (bridges) a plurality of telephone calls. The host may manually interact with an operator of the telecommunications carrier who, in turn, undertakes the necessary steps to reserve the required number of ports on a particular bridge. Alternatively, a host may reserve the requisite number of bridge ports by interacting with an automated system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,526, issued in the name of James McFarland et al. and assigned to AT&T (herein incorporated by reference). Once the host has reserved the requisite number of ports on the bridge, each participants (including the host) enters the conference call by directly dialing a telephone number associated with the bridge for connection to a bridge port. Upon receipt of a call, the bridge authenticates the caller by prompting for an identifier in the form of an access code. Only when the caller enters the proper access code for the particular conference call does the bridge connect the caller with others who have already joined the conference call.
To enter the conference call, each participant must know both the telephone number of the bridge as well as the requisite access code. (In practice, the host receives a separate access code from the other participants to afford the host the ability to control various aspects of the call.) Before a scheduled conference call, the host must communicate the bridge number and access code to each participant. For a large number of participants, ensuring that each scheduled participant receives the bridge number and participant code can prove cumbersome, particularly for participants at different locations. The problem of notifying all the conference participants of the conference bridge number and access code becomes even more pronounced for conference calls that occur on a frequent basis, such as every week or even every day. To alleviate this difficulty, some carriers allow the host to reserve the same bridge and use the same participant code. However, not all carriers afford every conference call host the ability to reserve the same bridge for every conference call.
To obviate the need to communicate the bridge number to every participant, some telecommunications carriers that provide conference call service will automatically launch a call to each participant at the start of the conference call. This approach works well for participants whose locations, and telephone numbers are known in advance of the conference call. Unfortunately, telecommunications carriers that provide this type of conference call service may not know the location of every intended participant at the outset of the conference call. For example, one or more invited participants may be away traveling, yet available to participate from a pay telephone. While launching a call to each participant obviates the need for the participant to know the bridge number, the participant must still receive the requisite access number for authentication in order to join the conference call.
Thus, there is a need for an enhanced conference call service that allows telephone subscribers to participate in a conference call from any location without advance knowledge of a particular bridge number and access number.